Bill Clinton just can’t seem to keep his sleazy private dealings out of the news: This time, it’s a 2005 dinner he shared with a wealthy mining mogul and Kazakhstan’s president, after which the businessman wound up with a coveted contract in that country.

The sordid story – about Clinton’s meal with Kazakh strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev and UrAsia Energy Ltd. head Frank Giustra – ran on the front page of Thursday’s New York Times.

Reporters Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr. deserve kudos: They describe how Clinton praised the Kazakh dictator, absurdly, for “opening up the social and political life of your country” and suggesting his nation lead Europe’s chief security agency – which would confer legitimacy on Nazarbayev’s regime.

They also recount how Giustra, at the time a newcomer to uranium mining, won a deal with Kazakhstan to buy into three of its uranium projects – just two days after the dinner.

And how Giustra, after letting a few months pass, gave $31 million to the Clinton Foundation – and later pledging another $100 million.

Now, it would be unseemly enough if Clinton were merely trading on his credentials as a former US president to raise funds, be they for his foundation or personal bank account.

But with his wife, Hillary Clinton, serving as a US senator and running for president, any such fund-raising prompts serious questions about conflicts of interest and influence-peddling.

It’s absolutely unacceptable.

The Clintons must decide:

* Will he give up his wheeling and dealing – and any activity that creates questionable appearances?

* Will he sever his relations to the foundation, and to business enterprises to which he’s been linked? (He’s already begun to do the latter.)

* Will he at least disclose the names of his foundation’s donors, so the public can judge his shenanigans for itself?

* Will Hillary step out of the public arena? (Fat chance, for awhile anyway.)

* Or will the pair simply continue indulging in the same sleazy behavior that has marked their political lives from the start?